17 month update...a little late.

Probably my longest post yet with the blurriest photos! I don't expect anyone to read all this but it's more for us to look back on! :D


You simply amaze me with how much you watch us when we don't even realize. You let Brinkley out of his kennel the other day. That kennel is complicated to open! Yesterday, you pulled out the lint trap to the dryer and started pealing back the lint like you have seen me do, I guess. You put on chapstick the way we do, brush your teeth, and drink from straws like you have always known how. I love never knowing what you will pick up next. ;) Hopefully only the good stuff, of course. Eek! :)

You had actually just put your toothbrush down when I snapped this (sigh)

After watching Pop work the grill, we had to check out every. single. one
at Lowe's. I had no idea they had so many!

Wearing sunglasses like your Mama.

And a purse too...eek!

Clothes vary from 18mo - 2T. It's kind of crazy actually. I'm sure it's just different brands.


You are getting much better at sitting and playing with toys on your own. The attention span is so much better! You especially love "cooking" things. We can leave you alone with a few bowls, spatulas and anything that will fill it (like toy cars) and you are good for quite some time! You majorly love tongs, mopping things, anything on a stick to carry and wave in the air and vacuums are the bees knees.

Walk backwards like the Moonwalk while smiling. All while knowing exactly where the wall is.


You will watch TV and cuddle on the couch only with your Dad. Apparently he forms some kind of "nook" that I can't duplicate! :/ He loves trying to teach me how to get you to cuddle. Mr. High and Mighty! :D


You enjoy putting caps & lids back on things: toothpaste, sippy cup, milk carton, etc.


You love to run! SO cute. Still wobbly, with your hair and arms bouncing all over the place. :)


Love playing hide and seek. I'm a little worried because you have so much fun with this that you may do it in public and I'll have a panic attack thinking I lost you.


Can follow commands and seems to know everything we say to you. My favorite is watching you be "gentle" with people and dogs. You pet everyone ;) (warning: I sound like I'm talking to a dog here - so annoying. but you get the point!)



Found your belly button! It's the cutest thing. You also know where your nose, ears and mouth are. Daddy and Mimi taught you all this. :)


Your Dad also taught you to jump. You don't actually leave the ground yet, which makes this all the more entertaining!



You are now the pickiest eater. You don't really seem to be losing any weight and like a typical toddler, somedays something will hit the spot (long enough for me to buy out the store) and then before I know it, you hate it. What a change from the way you used to be! You were such a good eater!

Not interested in Chik-fil-a?! Who ARE you? ;)

You are kissing us on the mouth now and making the sweetest little smacking sound. My heart melts!! This is by far the best part.


You are getting 6 teeth right now, 4 of which are molars. This causes major crankiness, waking up during the night and we feel so bad for you! It's newborn status all over again with the sleep deprivation. Ready to have a full set of teeth :)


You LOVE carrying things that are twice your size or bigger! Boxes, pillows, toy boxes, etc. And you are so strong! Definitely don't get that from me. :)


You are just so much fun to hang out with! Your smile melts my heart, your mischevious nature kind of terrifies me and your laugh is contageious. I haven't met one person who doesn't crack a smile when you do.


You like to be chased. Any time I'm trying to put your coat or shoes on, change your diaper, pick you up to put you in the car, shopping cart, high chair, anything, you take off! Your Mimi reminded me this is particularly dangerous in parking lots if you were to bolt. I have an even tighter grip on you these days. :)


You have a special relationship with your Dad. :) Your eyes light up when you see him for the first time each week when he gets home. I don't ever remember a time where you "forgot" him or had to get to know him again, you always knew your Dada! 

Picture is chopped b/c my main focus was the precious PJs
that the Seemans gave us. :)

Other things worth noting....

You love your milk! You are so content with it. :) 

Can't seem to kick the pacifier. :/

You hate hats and won't keep them on. Bummer
b/c how cute is this?!

Blog Series: Mommy's Juice Does Christmas

Nothing says "Holiday Cheer" like taking a Swiffer Sweeper to some Christmas decorations!

Cheers!

Things I love Thursdays: Thanksgiving Edition

This Thanksgiving was simply perfect with Amanda, Andrew, Andrea and Rogan in town for an extended period. We just have so much to be thankful for and I know these are the best times of our lives! Beau was home and on vacation the entire week and Grayson and I were THRILLED to be surrounded by everyone! My parents loved having their kids home and Jeff gets giddy having the guys around. :) There were a couple of pub lunches, dart tournaments, and movies and many football games watched by those guys. The girls took a couple of trips to the mall, saw the Twilight movie and all enjoyed some meals out together as well. 


Wednesday night before Turkey Day, we all had an incredible dinner at Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Gayle's house. 

Asking Maw something ;)

Uncle Jimmy, Elaine and Brian

Sitting by the fire with blankets - love!

They prepared a fabulous ham dinner with Pioneer Woman's
mac and cheese -- kuddos Elaine!

Thanksgiving Day was perfect. More eating, laying around, eating and laying around. Then for the VERY LAST TX/A&M game EVER. So sad, I know. A 100+ year tradition brought to an end and each side says the other is responsible. Bah. Regardless, it was a really exciting game! Probably everyone watching thought A&M was going to win this one until Texas kicked a field goal with seconds left to win the game. My parents' living room was ALIVE with shouting and jumping and yelling and high 5's! None of which was captured....but we had so much fun. :) 

I will cherish these days always!

The ongoing battle for the remote.

On Saturday, we helped my mom (I use the term "helped" loosely) cook a big Mexican dinner for everyone including the Dallas Caldwells, their grandmother, our grandmother, and cousin Tommy. We then settled in to watch the exciting Baylor football game! (so once again we have some pretty random photos - not capturing any of the family and all of G - sigh)

Love his time with NANDA! Aunt Amanda's new name that he
only said with a big emphasis...NANDA!! ;)

It's past Uncle Jimmy's bedtime!

Wardrobe change! It's hard to sling food across the room in a neck tie.

We miss everyone so much. Sunday was really sad seeing everyone go. It's getting increasingly difficult to see them pack their bags and leave. We look forward to next year though! 

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Green Monster

I recently learned about these Green Monster smoothies from my moms group. I think the creator of this site initially started it for her own energy boost but the smoothies quickly caught on with moms who are desperate to work veggies into their kids' diets. Since Grayson is no different and has zero interest in anything green (or orange or yellow),  I thought I'd try this route. I made our first smoothie this morning and Grayson seems to really like it! I probably need to start drinking them myself since I too have no interest in vegetables. And let's face it, I can use any energy boost I can get. 


I love that there are so many creative recipes! I tried the Banana-Blueberry recipe....you can't even taste the spinach :) 

Kids like the color :)

Oh, and masking it in a fun sippy cup doesn't hurt either. 

Amanda's Bachelorette Party....9 months late

I can not believe I never posted the pictures from Amanda's bachelorette party! I was just going through old photos and came across these...


not-so-brief recap: It was a wonderful weekend at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel! A beautiful hotel that, if you have ever been stuck talking to me about my vision for my house, you know I love the way they did this hotel! A Cowboy Zen feel, if you will, that proves that I can mix Texas western with anything. Like Pottery Barn, for example. :)


I digress....Amanda, Andrea and I did a sisters spa day there, then had Amanda's friends up to the suite for a lingerie shower and then out in Downtown Fort Worth, which is always a good time. Drinks and apps at Grace (LOVE this swanky place) and then mexican food at Mi Cocina. Most everyone spent the night and then we went to brunch at Brownstone. I seriously recommend this place! Any weekend centered around my sisters, good food, champagne and massages is a perfect one in my book! :)

We had fun decorating!

The invitation 

Sprinkled fun pictures of Amanda throughout the room. :) 

Amanda's glass had it's own veil! 

My Mom is the coolest! She made us her famous sugar cookies in
the shape of lips and hearts. They were a BIG hit at 2am.

The picture on the left is from my bachelorette
party....wheeling a cooler wearing my party veil. Ha! Silly girl.

The future (well, now present) Mrs. Tarr

CREEPIEST blow up doll ever!

Of course I left the camera in the room when we went out. There's a reason my aptitude test in high school made no mention of event photographer.

Party of Five

We had our group over for an adult play date (with kids) Saturday night and had a great time as always! We just ordered pizza, had some great wine and put on Happy Feet for Beau and Nick the kids. But really, any wine is great when there are SEVEN children in da house. It has been such a joy to see these kids grow up and I can already see the maturity coming through each time they come together. For example, they actually sat still for TWO seconds this time versus the one second last time ;)

Liam, Emmie, Piper, Naked Grayson and Cole

Remember last time?

Actually sitting in the same order!

and of course, the time before that....

Remember? Grayson was sleeping through his own party!

I just wish Nick could relax on the weekends. ;)

I just love Beau's photo of my Fall flowers :)

Had to include this one b/c I love my spastic son! :D

Miss Finley at 6 months. We didn't get one of Rowan, I guess?!
(Rowan is the newest baby at just 5 wks old)

What goes up must come down (Update on the post below)

I keep going back to the post below - simply shocked at how teeny tiny those paintings look above the bed!  While they don't seem to be that small in person, I'm troubled by the whole thing. In fact, Beau agrees with me and the fact that he does when he knows it means more manual labor for him, I know this is a BIG DEAL! Here are the options:

1) As I mentioned in the original post, leave them (well, once the middle one comes back down) and throw the Hail Mary pass of big, dramatic lamps to balance things out. OR will that make them look even smaller.... :/

2) Bring the outer frames up allowing for a second row of 3 frames beneath it.

3) Get bigger frames and start over with the paintings. Grayson won't mind.

Advice please.

Some small updates to the home

I blogged a while back about our work-in-progress master bedroom here. We are still loving our new bed and it's feeling much more cozy in there already. However, that giant horse picture screamed "move me into the office!" Before we did that though, I needed to figure out exactly what I wanted to do on that wall. I toyed with framing some unique prints from Etsy or even the pretty printed paper from Paper Source like these. I still love these ideas but couldn't pass up the opportunity to personalize it a bit :) So, I had Grayson whip up some paintings - true works of art from our adorable 16 month old! 


Some observations now that I'm looking at the photos:


1) The colors are off :/ I must be terrible at editing. Bah.
2) The middle "painting" will be brought down to where they are all even across but Beau has some patchwork to do from the GIANT HORSE that once looked over us as we slept. 
3) The frames were an impulse purchase a while back but looking at them, I should have gone a size bigger. However, with my sister's help, I've decided to go big and dramatic with new lamps eventually so hopefully this size will be perfect when all is said and done. :)

The colors blend with the bedding: blue, orange, yellow, camel.

They're pretty cute up close - all are little Grayson paint strokes!

The living room has two new pieces of furniture that I'm so, so happy about! Finally some place to set down that glass of wine milk. And that empty pint of ice cream because the trash can is SO. FAR. AWAY. 

Hmmm, I'm talking about the new trunk-as-a-coffee-table.
Jury's out on why I didn't zoom in. 

One man's trash....my mom donated this awesome
pedestal table to the Reynolds Living Room fund.
One random trip to Lowe's later, and I came home with an uber-cheap base
for my homeless lamp shade. There is no substitution to moody lamp light!